well i'm some are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight the big picture gunfire and bloodshed continues in the city of misrata libya without a congressional vote on the war are we as americans to make the outcome congressman dennis kucinich and charles rangel join me live plus clean energy policies may be just the boost our economy needs former governor of michigan jennifer granholm hear her perspective and to add insult to injury officials in japan say radiation levels are higher now than ever before what do these new developments mean for that ravaged country.

last night the lights were turned on in the news in the second nuclear reactor the day to plant in japan it was the first time electricity has been restored since the nine point zero earthquake and tsunami in march eleventh and the good news is immediately tempered is a spike in radiation levels forced workers out of the reactor before they can turn on the crucial cooling policy to prevent a nuclear meltdown and today another spike in radiation the highest level seen yet according to japanese nuclear agency has further set back efforts to restore electricity to any of the other reactors of the plant radiation is still spewing from the plant being found budged levels milk in the nation's food water supply in tokyo water bureau officials are saying that radioactive iodine levels are twice their normal levels for drinking water for infants and is facing an ecologically deadly catastrophe and we'll have more on that and the latest news coming out of that country but first is there a lesson we can learn from japan that may help clean renewable energy and gain momentum here in the united states former michigan governor jennifer granholm is here in washington. you see this week working with the pew environmental group to

highlight how clean energy investments can foster jobs and economic growth in the wake of the japan crisis and so many others actually it's name it right yeah well i was thinking of the fly ash that this was so in the colli coal mining disasters i mean it's it's i think becoming increasingly apparent percival welcome thank you for being here to write into it. as. i think it's being creating increase the prime minister of germany last week came out on the merkel came out and said that nuclear power is now officially a transitional energy source and pretty much everything else has been for the germans for a long time. is there a growing awareness of the need for green energy or is this a is this a moment i don't think there's any question about it in fact i just got back from china last week our but with a group called securing america's future energy and what china is doing what it what germany is doing what india is doing they all have

a policy that creates jobs in their country in clean energy we don't we don't have anything and you know pew has just foundation has just done a study which shows the growth of this clean energy industry globally since two thousand and four six hundred thirty percent growth in clean energy investments globally in the g twenty six hundred thirty percent of private sector investment so where's all that job those jobs are going to see and better jobs follow investment right best and mark hello they are not coming to the united states because we don't have an energy policy that sends a signal to the market invest here we're going to china they're going to other places because they have policies so i'm working with a few to roll out a national campaign and when i see national you know we're here in d.c. and with all due respect there's a lot of echo chamber here but folks in real america they want jobs and eighty four percent of americans want this congress to adopt an energy policy

a national energy policy that will promote energy efficiency and alternatives to the traditional sources of energy that we have because they know it's going to create jobs let me just give you one example of that because policy matters policy creates jobs in michigan not michigan spend as you know your michigan michigan's been the hardest hit state in the nation great because of the loss of automotive jobs and the loss of our manufacturing sector but well why is that is from two thousand to two thousand and eight and before we did not have a manufacturing policy in this nation we decided that we were going to allow the free market can suck jobs away to countries that had policies that were more favorable in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine. we decided that we were going to as a nation invest in clean energy and so department of energy at that point said we're not going to we're going to create an electric vehicle and in order to do that you have to create the batteries for that vehicle so they decided they were going to put out grants for about two point four billion dollars worth of energy

companies that would create batteries but michigan raised its hand we paying caked under the federal dollars some state incentives we got seventeen companies just in a year and a half to come to michigan and build the batteries for the electric vehicles that's creating sixty three thousand jobs the reason why i raise that isn't issues because sixty three thousand jobs in a year and a half committed to michigan because we had a policy that sent the right signals policy makes a difference i you know i remember some years back the reason i my wife and i were moving to actually and we were looking at houses and we would keep running across these houses that were like off the grid or so energy if you know efficient that they said oh it's only twenty dollars and you know a long way to go interesting and then what the one unique thing about them was they were all built in one nine hundred seventy eight seventy nine or eighty when we had policy jimmy carter had an energy policy ronald reagan put an end to it and we haven't had either an energy or manufacturing policy since then how do we bring

this about how do we wake people up to the need to not just do something and have something and you know educate people but actually have a structure for first of all i think americans have to wake up to the fact that if we do nothing then we will continue to lose when you factor in jobs and we will certainly lose the opportunity for this mother of all sectors and job sectors which is the clean energy world there other countries are happy as clams that the united states is doing nothing because that means that they can be the first in and you know this from coming from a manufacturing state the place where the first factories go where the factories go they're not going to lift up and move them right. now these factories are going to china they're going to other places like china factories and all the peripheral so that all of the suppliers to it china is manufacturing now just in the past two years this has happened because we don't have policy and they do their manufacturing half of the world's solar panels and half of the world's wind

turbines the solar technology started in the united states but it's gone over there so the bottom line is we have we have to have we have to get people aware that without doing anything which is what many in congress would say we we you know it's you know it's too much climate change i'm not even talking about climate change i think about jobs and energy independence every time we say the word libya or you know is could opt in is he out is housing the mubarak in or out we see an oil spike well if we want to have the means to control the price that you pay at the pump then let us create those means inside of our own nation that energy independence well allow us to be able to have electric vehicles which are by the way a much cheaper alternative in terms of the energy used then the traditional oil so let's do it at home so we're going to take this on the road we're going to go across the country we're going to go to states that have some best practices we want to invite members of congress to hear from the businesses in those states who want to see

a national energy policy that's actually great and we have this giant nuclear reactors ninety three million miles away from us that is blowing all kinds of energy up to the sun and we did you capture the exactly right go to it thank you. for coming out tonight you know in our program so our nation learns the right lessons from the current spike in the price of oil and the energy problems japan is experiencing right now one that is sure if humans. coming up the u.s. war in libya break down the latest developments of congressman dennis kucinich and charles wright. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right.

i think. either one well. whenever the government says there's confucius safe get ready because of their freedom. you know sometimes you see the story and the scene so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here sees some other part of it and realize that everything you saw. i'm sorry is a big. polish

and forces have shifted their libyan bombing campaign to the city of misrata where procrit off the forces that relentlessly attack rebels and innocent civilians living within the city also there are reports that a deal has been worked out to shift command of the no fly zone from the united states to a coalition of nato allies played a very near future nato warships have now begun patrolling the coast of libya to

enforce an arms embargo as part of the operation so far as to most of how much this mission is costing coalition forces close to a billion dollars and if you continue to grow the stalemate between gadhafi and the rebel forces continues in hopes of finding a quick resolution the rebel alliance is named a leader for the transitional government job real who had previously met with president sarkozy gadhafi remains defiant in the face of this massive bombing campaign speech on state television yesterday he said this. we are leading the global revolution against imperialism will be victorious and this is stuart battle we will surrender and the shorter it will be in the long term will be. we should learn a little credence to the words of a tin pot dictator like it off shouldn't this war bring about some soft reflection about just what kind of country we are president obama is the fifth consecutive

u.s. president to initiate one or more wars overseas and in this instance he didn't even receive the approval of congress or the people so what should we make of this congressman dennis kucinich from ohio joins me now the studio give us a russian congressman welcome back good to be with you great to have you with this is this. war in libya i don't know how you can call dropping bombs on people anything other than a war is illegal. well it's it's legal within the context of the u.n. stability. it's i think you know advised i think it's a huge mistake with respect to the united states the president doesn't have a congressional authority and the constitutional authority to do what he did. so. well before before we get into the back into this war just a little bigger picture question from how did america become addicted to war how do

we become the nation that every president has to have a war or he's not i mean it's almost like i've heard concern conservatives talk about jimmy carter as a wimp because he didn't have a war it's also reagan went in a grenade at because that you went into the falklands it was a point where you go from. politics to social psychology. leaders have the ability to take the country into war and people generally close ranks on any leader or gods or at least temporarily. the responsibility. for taking a nation of wars a very grave responsibility and it is in america for an american president to the most powerful thing that so. someone can do and the implications are vast how does it happen again i don't think it's just simply a political answer i think it goes to something very deep and the fact that we have

been involved in so many interventions. raises questions about whether the purpose of our democracy is to be subverted by this play an instinct for war which is actually counterproductive to our survival as a nation we have sworn to you know this no nation can maintain its freedom in the presence of perpetual war you know the father the constitution and of course dwight eisenhower warned about the military industrial complex and what do you plan on doing about this war when congress returns i'll be bringing a resolution forward or an amendment that will seek to strip strip or strike funding for the libyan intervention it would be very simple to just say no funds in this appropriation will be permitted to be used for the military operations in libya is that a resolution that will have to make it out of committee to the course i mean it has to do you think the chances well i you know there's

a great concern in congress from both sides of the ana and john boehner came out against that and i well i think that congressional leaders may decide that it's appropriate for congress to vote because keep in mind that the president chose not to go to congress not rude not to respect the constitution in this manner while at the same time though john boehner has some say in the agenda in congress have decided that for two weeks it was really really important to debate whether or not to defund planned parenthood and n.p.r. and didn't see him say anything about gee maybe we should talk about what's going on in libya it isn't is it doesn't the leadership of the house of representatives in particular since that's where we originate spending bills have bear some responsibility in this us congress a co-equal branch of government however it's a personal and it's exactly right it's article one article two is creates an executive. however the president made a decision is going to shape the war without going to congress and that i think is

the first problem we have the second problem is will congress when he gets the chance to cut funding do so not only as an expression. parag of under the constitution but also the stop a war that is heading us for still another disaster on top of iraq and afghanistan we cannot predict the outcome and the arrogance that says that we can somehow have control of said it before when you unleash the dogs of war they may not come back. you know when you call them or when they do come back home it may be bites you in the well that's part of the problem would be you know what i mean that has happened with every work is that the work on top i mean i was the same during vietnam war comes home and does it comes home and wounded people are councilman in injuries or comes home and dad comes home and all these things you know c.b.s. poll just yesterday found sixty eight percent of americans are in support of the president's intervention at this war. yet at the same time john boehner as

a mention just came out against it it's almost like he was you know which way ok well will. how do you reconcile this. national support with the fact that we're dropping bombs without congressional support well again people want to support their president that's a given george bush had very high approval rating. when the attack occurred on ghana stand and later on. iraq however this isn't about playing for a single day in a single applause this is about the responsibility to guide the future of our nation in a direction where you guided away from trouble not take you into trouble and now we've been taken into trouble in iraq afghanistan and libya the cost for iraq over

three trillion dollars according to joseph stiglitz and i'm going to build this for afghanistan a half a trillion dollars so we're close to ready one hundred million dollars a day from libya now we are told we don't have money for n.p.r. we don't have money for various health care services for women we don't have money for this we don't have money for that but we have panelists amounts of money for an open checkbook this is the beginning of the end of a democratic society if we continue to pursue a path of interventionism and stop and get a reality check for ourselves about what the implications of that interventionism are abroad and at home isn't there though or not though i mean is this not a bot i mean this is a carrying on that that line of thinking isn't there a very real problem with what dwight eisenhower referred to as the military does or how it works thomas frank goes to the pentagon city or the pentagon you know this area around the crystal city whatever the areas and here's all these giant defense contractors physically they occupy more space than the pentagon itself there it's

this massive machine now that has taken on a life of its own that is already money gone and congress i'm sure you're getting pressure from them if if you know every every member of congress has got to have these. well not another doors or maybe i don't know maybe maybe they're afraid of. bernie sanders as they don't even bother with me anymore and then bother with me i figure but there are a lot of people who know that the next election cycle soon depend on whether they can raise another million bucks and there is billions trillions to be made in the private industry here and if you have gold stars on your shoulders you're virtually guaranteed a million dollars a year when you leave you know if you do your appropriations right in that industry there's this awful revolving doors syndrome how do we break this stuff up i think in this case there's an interesting contradiction because there are generals who are opposing what the united states is doing and they need to be heard from and we

need to be given an opportunity for them to get their message to the american people even as secretary defects what he was and why i haven't agreed with initially oppose this war so. it is true that these defense contractors are very powerful and they do have political influence but i'll tell you this i don't think when push comes to shove that will be the only calculus involved in the decision making that congress has to. has to make with respect to libya because if if some members would do it only for a defense contractor they would probably do so at their political peril and sooner or later when this war comes home and when the bill for the war comes home. americans are going to ask what did we buy here and when that question comes and the number one three sixty eight it may be forty eight or maybe thirty eight you

know this is eventually they when you when you run wars based on polls it's a nightmare yes i agree congressman considers thanks very much time. at a press release issued today congressman charles wrangle. this about our nation's current military engagement with libya he said it is the responsibility of congress to consider a president's decision before involving ourselves in any military conflict if we don't assert our constitutional authority in something as serious as war he said we are slowly undermining our democratic principles well maybe a bit tough for congress to assert its constitutional authority since speaker of the house john boehner decided to take the week off if congress doesn't approve the war didn't approve the war debate the war even hold hearings on the war how are the american people supposed to know what the purpose of this war is and how to win it and without these answers are we in danger of facing another military disaster regular rock joining me now to answer these questions as congressman charles rangle from new york congressman rahall welcome back to the bridge thank you sir you are

you yourself are a doubt decorated war hero but you've been there you've done that you have an understanding a war that that i think many of this generation in particular of americans lack how worried are you that this in gauge with libya could become the next iraq or vietnam or pick your metaphor. this is country on my mind because you may know it's mostly people do know that when i went to korea the president at night they cleared war against career in that united nation of a geisha is something that has been very difficult for me to explain but you know when you get to the bottom line and someone is involved in some a mission like this as they have for eight years been involved in the middle east and you go to the fields and the parents or the relatives kids come and say you know was my dad

a hero tell them something nice about my dad and they said that i say that because they have no clue as to why they were there what were they doing and my biggest fear was that. one of the brave men or women flying and shooting those rockets would have been kind of shit and my heart beat says that as when i found out that what had been had malfunctioned and he could have been captured if it was a hostile group then was the next step i mean i would have to then tell the parents of it were in my district that the heck we've got to get your son out of there so all this business about no boots on the ground doesn't mean anything at all if indeed. we expose your own kids and put them in harm's way and not just like the say if you get shot and killed in any foreign country it's war and i just don't see

how you can be involved in war unless there is a threat to national security you don't have to be right but at least you should go through the constitution no right to go before the american people and you do that through the congress isn't that the congress is. better than the president but it least we able and sell our constituents why our young people are there absolutely and i agree your point on the hostages jimmy carter could tell you some stories about that about what happened all by god yes back but i'm curious your thoughts in the in the two minutes or so we have left on whether or not speaker boehner should have called back the house of representatives for an emergency session this week or or at least brought this to the agenda last week. well if you're talking about last week i could readily agree but to embarrass the president by him calling in the

presidents and brazil no i don't think that would have helped very much but it would not hurry for them to call the congress back now the vice president you know could present us with the situation and then we involved in the same thing we were involved with iraq is strange to me how all of these countries have oil you know and. libya didn't have a boil i don't even think we would be in there we made saddam hussein months that we made duffy a month there but after all this said and done you know who takes over for you we don't. know which tribe which people in and they said things that maybe the president knows and i have been deepest respect for secretary of state in the best solution rice but it would be better when people ask me these questions you

know because they know most of the saying dead or alive and to me even a bones life is a lie if and the whole idea that you've got to kill him and god knows how many other people may be with him to me if you're going to go that route you go through the constitutional way and we have to assume the responsibility which way we vote down and i i just like they had to. i think dennis was talking about what the bill is going to be worth for war somehow we don't seem to have a bill and we're closing i suppose we closing nursing homes we cut it we're laying off teachers really cutting back assistance to the cities and to the states we're getting more people losing work but we had into the payroll. and yet with this sudden this thin they're already we spend half a billion dollars and we don't know when this fiscal bleeding is going to have

stopped hemorrhaging so all of these things is probably a good reason to be there but you feel a lot more competent if you're able to explain that you could stick to it and i don't think any presidents including proven really believe that they have a constitutional responsibility not just to declare war but to get support from the american people oh yeah well the last time it happened was f.d.r. and and in fact it was interesting that eisenhower ran on a platform in fifty two of peace you know vote for peace vote for eisenhower was a slogan it's just it's it's really quite remarkable. cut it congressman rangle we have just just a few seconds left very quick question i got a call from a dear friend on satellite phone from sudan today two years ago we did our show from sudan on the border with north sudan and are for should we given that we're now intervening in countries should we go after bashir i mean he's a he's

a water war criminal in the hague. well i you know you have to go to defense the but you certainly don't have to go to the office of management and budget because budget is off of the table even for discussion when you're talking about war but we have to determine where the humanitarian relief which we all would like to do whether we're prepared to pay for it not only in dollars but can pay for it and the lives of young men and women who actually do the dying well we had no one's that doing did that quote ration see here in washington so i can't even so we wouldn't go i know we do we miss some major opportunities. to do to humanitarian thing but i don't know whether that's constitutional. role that we should be doing and if so how do you select what is the policy what is the guideline do you need the oil and that and that seems to be it is is it seems that if you know

if oil was the major output of northern sudan. you know well i mean you know we're out of time sir but. we've both said it congressman charles rangel thanks so much for being with us tonight good to be bad sounds right so all that you do thank you and you can and you too sir i'll have more on libyans and steely take. coming up in the midst of foreclosures upside down loans and second mortgages the housing crisis is getting worse the second bubble we could be heading into after the break. let's not forget that we.